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SIXTY-FIRST YEAR.
SATUR DAY, MARCH 9, 1935.
How Germany Educafes Her Young Womanhoo
Up-to-date business and professional wonlen may no longer look down superciliously- on the German "h,ausfrau." Such an a titude is severely discountenanced in the Third Reich. With all due respect for the ability of the business or professional_ woman, the Hitler Government takes the standpoint that the preeminent duties of a woman are those of a wife and m other.
to "have a good talk one day," but never doing it. So the third of my friends told us a story. She had married at 18. I knew her at the time, a gloriously healthy young woman, fine golfer, splendid swimflier and tennis player, and withal
highly educated, as the world judges education. At nineteen she lay for two months at death's door. And the child—dead. This because of her own ignorance. That girl then set out to learn those things which she should have been taught before
Shrine of The Little Flower.
The numerous women's clubs in the country have been incorporated in one large organisation, with a membership of about ten million women, under the name "Deutsches Frauen werk" ( German Women's Work). The object of this organisation is tile systematic educating and training of the German . T,01-1" for her 'purpose in life—motherhood.
"And," she told us, "believe me, my Anne at 15 is being taught how to care for her physical health. She is learning that, as a woman, health of mind- and body is. the most important thing in the world to her. She shall not go through the torment I endured, if I can help it." And so says nmdern Germany. We are ak‘ays being told tha:. the birthrate is declining, that tl- e right sort of people do not have children. or. if they do. they have imly one child—possibly t WO.
But what is done to help matters?
And why not? It some such system were established ill these islands many hours of doubt and anxie*v might he saved the young housewives and mothers of to-day. And many a voutig life—now forfeit to ignorance and apathy--might he preserved. True, there are Clinics where such instruction is Willingly and gladly given, but these are arranged for the already married, and are - usually resorted to only when motherhood is imminent. Attendance is voluntary. The clinic reache!‘ only the wciman who is determined to he a good wife and mother —the woman who is "putting her heart into it.These women could be trusted in any case to see that their children had a fair start in life. The women who must be reached are those—and their number is leare content to go on in ignorance. These negligent W ives. unheeding- that with them r ests the future of the race. are often women of the so-called better classes, highly educated, as We count ant of the education, vet ifznotmost essential knowledge a woman should have—the simple rules of health and byziene hearing upon marriage ;Inc! the rearing- of children. On a recent afternoon at tea with three married women friends I Germany'sbroached this subject of education of her Y oung Two Were inclinedWomanhood. to take the prevailing attitude of "things one doesn't discuss" and mothers." "leave it to their But we all know that between mother and daughter is Often an a unaccountable shyness. self-consciousness which avoids these subjects: alwav meanin
becoming a wile. Two years later she had another child, and a year or two afterwards a second—two of the bonniest children one could ever see.
iermany
takes
these
girls
w hen they are schoolgirls, and instills in them the glory ot wile • an d motherhood, awakens in
them the natural instinct that is in all women. In their 'teens they are given instruction in the elementary branches of science and art are taught practical economy and housewifery, encouraged to take up various sports, and, above all, taught that vigorous health is the crowning glory of youth. Having prepared these young people in every possible way for marriage and motherhood, the ( 1V ernment goes further and makes it possible, even practical. for this ambition to be realised. The State lends to every couple about to marry the sum of one thousand marks. This sum has to be repaid in time, but the amount to be refunded is reduced after each child, and after the fourth child the debt is cancelled.
Nor does the interest of the State end here. One of the principal objects of the "Deuches Fratienwerk" is to help mothers —a task hitherto left to private charity, supported largely by the Church.
T hotAbove is a reproduction of the magnificent altar of the Little 41414i shrine. which will be blessed and opened to -morrow (Sunday' by His Grace the Archbishop The material of the altar is thc costly Algerian onyx, of which the best shade, the "Once Dorato Rubini." was chosen on account of its harmonising with the colour of the From a delicate cream it merges to a honey tone, Carmelite robes. The life- sized statue of The Little Flower ruby red. with inged t was executed by Professor Mastroicanni, of Rome. one of the leading ecclesiastical sculptors of his time. The marble is toned to the colours of the Carmelite habit. In the centre of the Altar. at the foot of the statue. rest < the reliquary con ning the major relic of St. Therese
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For this purpose ovei- one hundred recreation and training homes for mothers have been established throughout the country, where for weeks at a time exhausted or debilitated mothers can find peace and rest with professional care, free of charge. And now it is proposed in Germany to bring in new taxation laws, one of which will he complete exemption from tax-paying for fathers of families. 4